Me, bragging but not bragging

The whole blogging thing really puts me in a weird position because the basic idea is that I show people my life. The very idea is egotistical. Like most women I want to show you my life and impress you. But I also don't want to be one of those people who is obnoxious with this perfect veneer who makes you feel super depressed about your own life. It's been a real quandry for me.

There are a few blogs that cause me to dry heave with their perfection. There is no mention of husband/wife tension, super messy closets, the dog who keeps pooping on the living room carpet, crappy dinners involving ramen and paper dishes and a mantel that is not decorated cutely. I like to keep it more real. My husband drives me crazy a lot, 50% of our closets are scary (especially the master closet! What a total nightmare. It's the dumping ground for everything we don't want people to see.), our dog occassionally poops on the stairs (!?!), and I have been known to feed my kids really sad dinners. Last Sunday I completely forgot to even make dinner (we'd been grazing all day) so I just gave the kids string cheese and put them in bed (there was some teeth-brushing as well, so don't go calling the bad-Mom cops just yet) and my mantel has the same candlesticks it always has. The only Christmasification I've done is to add stockings. Big whoop. I also haven't developed a super cute way to display my Christmas cards. Instead they are scattered in various piles around my kitchen which is in massive disarray. (Athough there are also no pictures anywhere on my blog showing me not looking gorgeous. I'm pretty vain, so there never will be either.

This is my problem: how real do I make my life for you readers? I think anyone who knows me in real life can attest to this blog being pretty true. There is definite editing, though. If take a picture of my kids I shove the basketful of unfolded laundry out of the background. And if I snap a picture of something, I do wipe the dust off of the table first. I don't want to humiliate myself, after all (although I usually just dust that one little spot where I'm taking the picture).

But I am good at things. I'm not a one-trick pony. I can bake and cook and sew and craft and paint and refinish and write and knit and do nice makeup and make soap and play the harp. And I have six kids on top of it all. I would like to brag about those things. But I don't want to be

that blog

The one you hate but you read anyway because you just can't help it. I'm not that blog, right?

It's a good thing I don't care more about photography because then you'd really see it all. Half the time I just don't feel like taking pictures of the stuff I've done and I still don't get f-stops and white balance anyway. The other half of the time I think of all the time it takes to do the picture, edit/resize it, upload it then put it on the blog. BOOOORING. No self-respecting blogger is going to post bad pictures, though, so instead I just skip it altogether.

Let's talk about the last two weeks. Much busier than normal. I managed to

--Sew four skirts for me and my three daughters.

(People, learn to sew! Aside from cooking, it will make the most difference in your life.) Then we got our pictures done and I spent a while photoshopping our bags and shadows and swapping York's head because the boy is incapable of smiling. What is it with teenage boys?

--Make 30 bars of soap. And I didn't take a picture of a single one.

--Bake about 6 dozen cookies for various parties and such. Which isn't really that many when you think about it.

--Spent several hours cutting out snowflakes which has to be one of the most relaxing, zen things I've ever done. Those I did take a picture of.

There's about a zillion tutorials out there so I'm not going to do one. Here's a tut that I like that has lots of details. This site is also super cool because you can cut out virtual snowflakes and see what they look like. It's handy when you're trying to wrap your mind around design concepts. It's also guaranteed to occupy your kids for quite a while. The important thing to understand about snowflake-making is that most of the paper is going to be cut away. You will end up with really weird things that look like this before they are unfolded.

Oh, and use some nice sharp scissors. After I took these pictures I used my 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby and got some super sharp and pointy little scissors. My latest snowflakes have been way more detailed.

--Made several jars of foot creme. It's really thick and moisturizing. It was a real S.O.B. to make but I think the creme will be great to put on rough body parts. These will mostly be for gifts. Also for gifts?

--20 tubes of lip salve. I need to do labels today. So not in the mood but I need to get this stuff mailed out pronto.

--Supervise the annual "making of the Gingerbread houses". One of my least favorite parts of motherhood.

--Later today I will also be making some body lotion. The place where I get my supplies is seriously backordered which means I'll have to craft lotion from the things I already have. Could be a little iffy. Again, it will require more label-making. Ugh.

So you see I have been a busy little beaver. I could turn each of these activities into a gorgeous blog post. Part of me thinks I should do that because if some people hate it they can just not read my blog any more. I need to step it up and be a big girl blogger. I am a force to be reckoned with, you know. But part of me thinks it's obnoxious and braggy and it is a lot of extra work (is that wisdom talking or just laziness?)

Between all my craftiness and mothering I will just have my little existential crisis about the dichotomy of blogging over here in the corner.